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Thursday, December 3, 2015

Welcome to
my stop on the Virtual Tour, presented by Pump Up Your
Book, for Laguna Lights
by Kaira Rouda. Please leave a comment or question for Kaira
to let her know you stopped by. You may follow all of the stops on Kaira's tour by clicking on the banner above.

Laguna Lights
By Kaira Rouda

Laguna Beach, Book 3

Publisher: Real You Publishing Group

Release
Date: November 10, 2015

Genre:
Contemporary Romance
Pages: 180

ISBN: 978-1517390815

ASIN: B0160PJ8MY

About the book:

Laura
Kinkaid’s glamorous Hollywood life is falling apart. After years of reality
television stardom beginning in high school on Laguna Nights, her career and
relationship with her long-term boyfriend Scott are fizzling out. Laura decides
to go home to Laguna Beach for the weekend to attend a baby shower for her high
school friend. That decision – and a car accident – will lead her to a new
future, if she’s ready to take a chance at love.

Paul Dorn’s
former life in New York City is far behind him and he’s working in a popular
Laguna Beach surf shop when fate brings the most beautiful woman he’s ever met
into his life. The attraction is instant and he has an overwhelming desire to
protect her. While Paul’s retail sales career is a short-term job for market
research purposes, his focus on Laura is long-term.

Will Laura
allow a handsome stranger to help her create a future unlike her past, or will
the bright lights of Hollywood pull her back to LA?

Laura
Kinkaid stared across the table at Scott, her on-again-off-again lover,
wondering why she had wasted a decade of her life with him. They’d met in high
school, and Scott had been infatuated with her. He was the new kid on the
reality TV show they’d appeared on together, Laguna Nights. Fame hadn’t changed
him. Yet. And back then, he’d had a full head of thick brown hair.

Today,
he was a cocky, bald television star who was ignoring her. How things changed,
she realized with a sigh. Maybe she was jealous, or maybe – she decided with a
feeling that she realized could almost pass for hate— she was angry.

She
looked out the window to the lights of LA stretching out 35 stories below. If
they hadn’t been seated at the most visible, most desired table at the hottest
new restaurant in LA, she would have thrown something at him. She surveyed the
table to see what she could throw. Her fork? Maybe. Her full glass of expensive
red wine? No, that would be a waste of good wine. Maybe even one of the pieces
of intricately designed sushi taunting her from the plate of appetizers on the
table. This had to be it. The proverbial last straw, she told herself. She smiled
at the image she conjured - his bald head glistening with sushi debris, the
smirk wiped off of his handsome face.

Why am I
so obsessed with someone who is so obsessed with himself?

“Why
are you giving me that look?” Scott said, finally placing his phone on the
table, its glowing contents face up and taunting her. She had to find out what
was on that screen, she realized.

“We
are at dinner. A romantic dinner that was your suggestion, I might add, and
you’ve been on your phone for the past ten minutes,” Laura said. She knew her
tone of voice, shrill and whispered at the same time, would repel him. She was
right. He leaned back in his seat, a smug grin on his face, his arms crossed.
Laura grabbed his phone. Her brain couldn’t register what she was viewing. She
stared at the screen. She was shocked to see a young brunette woman with huge
breasts barely contained within her skimpy bathing suit, and the words,
“Congratulations, you and Jamie are a match!” As Laura realized what she was
seeing, anger boiled deep inside her. She couldn’t decide whether to run out of
the restaurant, throw his phone and smash it against one of the floor-to-ceiling
windows, or simply cry.

“Hey,
give me my phone,” Scott said, reaching across the table. But Laura was faster.
She jumped back, cradling the phone in her hand and staring at him with
disgust.

“Tinder? You’re searching for hook-ups
for tonight while you’re here with me?”

She’d
seen the ‘so called’ dating app and its competitors and they repulsed her.
Lonely people used apps like Tinder for random hook-ups. The younger women on
the set of the show Laura had been producing, Reality TV Triple Play, had shown her how they worked. They’d
scrolled through an array of selfies of desperate men and judged each guy’s
merit by that one photo. One young make-up artist had admitted using the dating
app to get free meals from men, something she insisted on before hooking up
with a stranger. The woman had called the guys she’d met on the app “fuckboys,”
men with no interest in having a relationship or even hanging around until
morning. Now she knew another type of ‘fuckboy’: boyfriends who used apps like Tinder to cheat. Like the man sitting
across the table from her at this moment. As the realization hit her, she felt
her eyes filling with tears.

“We’ve
been drifting ever since the show was cancelled,” Scott said. His voice was
quiet, almost patronizing. He spoke the words slowly, like she was an idiot,
not the woman he’d been dating for a decade. Like they hadn’t known each other
since high school. Both Scott and Laura had become instant celebrities during
their years on Laguna Nights. And
both, unlike most of the cast members, had gone on to enjoy careers in
Hollywood. In fact, when Laura was offered her own show, Hollywood Nights, chronicling her college years and first job in
LA, Scott eagerly rode her coattails to fame and a sizable fortune. But eventually,
like all reality television, the audience moved on and Laura and Scott had been
left in a dimming spotlight.

Scott
had transitioned successfully into another industry, opening his own branch
office of his parents’ successful, high-end travel business in West Hollywood.
He loved the travel and had even invited Laura along for some of his
all-expenses-paid site inspections. But apparently the only thing that had held
their relationship together was gone. She needed the camera’s focus. She needed
the spotlight. It was something she craved, something that had become as
necessary as breathing air. Her chest felt tight as she took a sip of water.

We
never loved each other, we only used each other for television, her mind
screamed. Had she ever had a true relationship, one based on love and respect,
or had her entire life been as superficial as the industry she craved? Laura
blinked, trying to focus on this moment but the reality of her life wouldn’t
allow it.

About the Author

Kaira Rouda is a bestselling, multiple
award-winning author of contemporary women's fiction and sexy modern romance
novels that sparkle with humor and heart. Her women's fiction titles include
HERE, HOME, HOPE, ALL THE DIFFERENCE and IN THE MIRROR. Her bestselling short
story is titled, A MOTHER'S DAY. Kaira's work has won the Indie Excellence
Award, USA Book Awards, the Reader's Choice Awards and honorable mention in the
Writer's Digest International Book Awards. Her books have been widely reviewed
and featured in leading magazines.

Her sexy
contemporary romance series set on INDIGO ISLAND includes: WEEKEND WITH THE
TYCOON, Book 1; HER FORBIDDEN LOVE, Book 2; THE TROUBLE WITH CHRISTMAS, Book 3;
and THE BILLIONAIRE'S BID, Book 4. Each of these novellas can be read as a
stand alone, or enjoyed as a series. Her new series is set in LAGUNA BEACH and
includes: LAGUNA NIGHTS, Book 1; LAGUNA HEIGHTS, Book 2; and LAGUNA LIGHTS, Book 3 coming winter 2015.
She also helped launch Melissa Foster's The Remington's Kindle World with her
bestselling novella, SPOTLIGHT ON LOVE, and is part of Carly Phillips Dare to
Love Kindle World with THE CELEBRITY DARE.

Her
nonfiction titles, REAL YOU INCORPORATED: 8 Essentials for Women Entrepreneurs,
and REAL YOU FOR AUTHORS: 8 Essentials for Women Writers (available for free
download on her website) continue to inspire.

She lives in
Southern California with her husband and four almost-grown kids, and is at work
on her next novel.

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